Page 31 of Unsteady: How to Fail at Flirting
But the timing turned out to be perfect.
After our relationship became official, Finn forbade me from setting foot on the property.
He sent me away for a week-long stay at his Lake Norman house, letting me bring Iris with me. In early June, after everything blew up with the Wright wedding, Iris needed to get out of town for a while to put it all behind her.
Not because the bride, Rebecca Wright, had anything against her. The work that Iris did on the dresses for that wedding was top-tier. But the mother of the bride was gunning for Iris.
But that’s a story for another day.
When we come back to Songbird Ridge, Finn is waiting at my crappy rental house, with another crew up to some mischief.
“What’s going on?” I ask.
Iris is curious, too.
“I had an idea,” Finn says.
That’s when I notice one of the moving crew workers is carrying a box marked “living room.”
“Finn! What did you do now?”
“I have another surprise for you.”
“It can’t be a birthday surprise. It’s too late for that,” I say.
“Fine. Our two-month anniversary surprise.”
The store is…
“Beautiful,” Iris gasps.
“Cool,” says Oliver, nodding as he looks around the room.
Me? I’m speechless for once. I run my hand over the hardwood shelves, polished to a high shine, waiting to receive the books. The check-out desk has been handmade to my exact specifications. There’s a chandelier that I’ve been dreaming about and bookmarked on my laptop, but I never told Finn about it.
“Did you break into my computer?”
“No,” he scoffs. “But I do read over your shoulder.”
I’m too overwhelmed to care. I’m too touched that he thought of everything I liked, from the fixtures to the shelves to the signage. Everything is exactly how I had envisioned it.
“There’s more,” he says.
I feel like one of those people on those renovation shows. “Does this have something to do with the movers touching all my shit?”
“Hard to say.”
“Don’t be coy, Finn. I prefer you straightforward,” I say.
He takes me by the hand and leads me upstairs. Thank god he doesn’t make me wear a blindfold to mess up my hair.
Iris and Oliver follow us up the stairs, and I can hear them whispering.
“Did you two know about this?”
“I can neither confirm nor deny,” Oliver says flatly.
When we reach the top of the stairs at the back of the store, Finn pushes open the heavy oak door.
